django-json-field contains a flexible JSONField and associated form field. The model field is not only capable of serializing common JSON data types (int, float, decimal, string, time, date, datetime, etc.) but also lazily deserializing them so they can be accessed and modified as normal Python objects within Django.

A form field is also provided. It will accept serialized representations:

{"date": "2012-04-23T19:16:54.133", "num": "1.2399"}

And also provides safe access to the datetime module for explicit use:

{"date": datetime.datetime(2012, 4, 23, 19, 16, 54, 133000)}

While the JSON string will not be deserialized until it is accessed it can still be a performance concern, so you may find it valuable to disable the custom deserializer (JSONField(decoder=None)).

django-json-field is also compatible with South and Python 3.

Install from PyPI:

pip install django-json-field

If installing manually, first install the dependencies:

pip install python-dateutil six

Install from GitHub:

git clone git://github.com/derek-schaefer/django-json-field.git

pip install -e git+git://github.com/derek-schaefer/django-json-field.git#egg=json_field

Add json_field to your PYTHONPATH and INSTALLED_APPS setting:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...
    'json_field',
    ...
)

That's all!

Add a JSONField to your model like any other field.

from json_field import JSONField
from django.db import models

class MyModel(models.Model):

    json = JSONField()

JSONField also has a few additional optional parameters.

• default: Falls back on "null" if not provided and null=False, otherwise None
• db_type: Allows you to specify the column type (default: text)
• lazy: Defer deserialization until the field is directly accessed (default: True)
• encoder: Custom JSON encoder (default: DjangoJSONEncoder)
• decoder: Custom JSON decoder (default: json_field.fields.JSONDecoder)
• encoder_kwargs: Specify all arguments to the encoder (overrides encoder)
• decoder_kwargs: Specify all arguments to the decoder (overrides decoder)
• evaluate_formfield: Evaluate (risky) and enable use of the datetime module in the form field (default: False)

django-json-field is licensed under the New BSD license.